Behavioural development and mental health in infancy: object retrieval.

In order to assess poor mental development, we must be aware of the normal development against which to measure up what is supposed to be delayed, deviant or malfunctioning. Experimental Child Psychology has traced parameters of the developing cognitive system of the infant which are important factors that influence the configuration of a normally balanced, or equilibrated, composition of intelligence in later life. The Developmental Neuroscience approach gives a scientific explanation to what parents might experience as unresponsiveness, lack of distress and rage control, or excessive clinging of a demanding child.